Device for sorting and orienting particles



May 8, 1962 H. HAIDEGGER DEVICE FOR SORTING AND ORIEN-TING PARTICLES Filed Aug. 12, 1959 llllHflllIllll /IlTl x l INVENTOR ns Haxgger BY 0W ATTORNEY t mshaping an inlet canal for the particles to effect a prelimi- Patented May 8, 1962 3,033,337 DEVICE FOR SORTING AND ORIENTING PARTICLES Hans Heidegger, Solothurn, Switzerland, assigner to Ebauches S.A., Neuchatel, Switzerland Filed Aug. 12, 1959, Ser. No. 833,175 Claims priority, application Switzerland Aug. 16, 1958 4 Claims. (Cl. 193-31) This invention relates to a method and a device for sorting and orienting particles of similar size and shape, for instance workpieces for feeding them to the working place of a machine tool or the like.

It is well known in the art to separate particles of one distinct quality from mixtures comprising particles of different size, shape and physical properties, by centrifuging or Wind-sifting the mixture or by removing particles of magnetizable material from a mixture by feeding the mixture through a magnetic field. However, these known separating methods are only operable when the particles to be separated are of entirely different physical properties.

It is the primary object of this invention to provide means for sorting and orienting particles of similar physical properties and of similar size and shape, for instance of similar workpieces for automatically feeding them in a desired orientation to the Working place of a machine tool. In accordance with this invention this is accomplished broadly by feeding the particles into a stream of a gaseous'or liquid medium or into any other suitable magnetic, electric or other field of forces, wherein different forces will act onto the particles of irregular shape in accordance with the position at which the particles are exposed to the forces acting thereon in the said stream of medium or in any other field of forces. The particles may be'fed into the field of forces without any distinct preliminary orientation, whereby a relatively small efficiency will be obtained, that is, a relatively small portion of the particles fed into the field of forces will be sorted out as `desired while the major portion of the particles would pass through the field of forces without being brought to a distinct position. Therefore, since a much higher efficiency of the sorting stream or field may be obtained when preliminary orienting the particles before admitting them t the sorting place in which interaction between the said stream or field of forces and the said particles is allowed, it is preferred to preliminary orient the particles before feeding them to the sorting place. It is possible, by relatively simple means as by properly nary orientation of the particles in substantially opposite positions, so that the action of the said stream or field of force will also be a substantially opposite one, whereby the particles are effectively sor-ted into two groups comprising each one half of the particles. In accordance with this invention such groups of particles may be discharged by means of the said stream or field of force and during discharge the particles of each `group of particle-s may be further oriented so that all the particles will finally be discharged in a desired position for packing or Working such particles. The selectivity of the sorting action may further be improved When the particles having a preliminary orientation in substantially opposite directions are subjected to the action of oppositely directed streams of a medium or oppositely acting fields of forces, whereby particles having one particular preliminary orientation are positively affected by the one of the streams or fields and are readily discharged towards one outlet canal while the particles having opposite preliminary orientation are positively affected by the other stream or eld for being discharged lto another outlet canal.

lt is a particular object of this invention to provide means for sorting and orienting particles of similar physical properties by acting thereon without any contact of such particles with mechanical sorting members, whereby continuous sorting and orienting at a very high speed substantially exceeding the speed of any known mechanical sorting and orienting plant may be obtained. Experiments have shown that this invention allows sorting and orienting 1090 to 2000 pieces per minute in one single sorting place. This excellent result is particularly due to the -fact that the particles are very rapidly discharged from the sorting place by the said stream or field, whereby particularly high speeds are obtained when using an air jet or air jets as a sorting and transporting means for the particles.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description and from the drawings, wherein one embodiment of this invention is l illustrated by way of example and wherein FIG. 1 is a front view, FlG. 2 is a back view and FlG. 3 is a side view of the device, and

FIGS. 4 to 6 are sectional views taken along lines l IV--lV, V-V and Vl--Vl respectively in FIG. l.

The sorting device has a plate-shaped front portion 1,

a rear portion built up from superposed plates 2, 3 and 4 and a wedge-shaped intermediate portion 5. A tube 6 and a supporting pin 7 having similar outlines and adapted yfor plug connection of the sorting device to any desired machine are provided on the intermediate portion 5. The front plate 1 is maintained in contact with the other portions by means of a spring bow S loosely anchored in lateral grooves of bolts 9. Upon removal of the spring `bow 3 the front plate 1 may readily be removed for giving access to vthe interior of the device.

A W-shaped flat groove 1t) is milled into the back face of plate 1, this groove being covered by portions 4 and when plate 1 is in its mounted position as shown,

so that a fiat canal is formed by the groove 10. A groove f 11 having the same section as groove 10, is milled into the' plate 2 and extends along a straight vertical line from the top end to the bottom end of plate 2. A groove 12 of similar cross -section and having a shape as particularly seen in FIG. 2 is provided in the portion 4, this groove 12 covering with the lower end of groove 11 when the portions are assembled so that the lower outlet ends of grooves 11 and 12 are located side to side and are separated `from each other by thin sheet 3. This sheet 3 serves as a covering member for canals 11 and 12. As shown in FIG. 6, the sheet 3 only extends to the upper end of portion 4 thereby allowing communication of the canals formed lby groove 19 With grooves or canals 11 and 12 respectively. canal 10 communicates with an inlet opening 13 at the rear side of the device, the particles to be oriented and sorted being fed into the `device through this opening 1 by means of a feeding vdevice 14 as schematically shown in FIG. 4 and having a spiral-shaped vibrating path 15 along which pieces are continuously fed yfrom a supply at the bottom of the device to the opening 13. Openings 16 and 17 at the rear side of the device communicate with canals 11 and 12 respectively and pieces leaving the canals through such openings will return into the feeding v device 14 through a funnel 18 shown in FIG. 4.

site directions, that is to the right and to the left respec-` tively. Pressure air may be admitted to nozzles 19 and 20 through connection piece 6 and through canals not The upper end of the central portion of shown in detail, and the air jets leaving nozzles 19 and 20 are directed each into one of the rising side branches of canal which form a pair of outlets. Above the places where the side branches of canal 10 open into canals 11 and 12 respectively, further nozzles 22 similar to nozzles 19 and 20 are mounted in plate 1, such nozzles 22 being connected to the pressure-air supply by means of conduits 23 and the openings 24 of such nozzles being directed downwards.

The above described device is adapted, by way of example, for sorting and orienting at cup-shaped parts or articles 25 as schematically shown in FIG. 5. Such parts or articles are fed through opening 13 into the canal 10 with one of their fiat sides supported on the bottom surface of opening 13, so that such parts will fall down through the central portion of canal 10 which is the inlet for the separating position, to the lowermost place of this canal in a manner that the parts will arrive at the separating position with their hollow side directed either towards nozzle 19 or towards nozzle 20. It will be seen from FIGURE 1 that the inlet for the separating position is approximately perpendicular to the pair of outlets. From the foregoing it is evident that the parts are subjected to a preliminary orientation by the particular design of the feeding device 14 and of the inlet canal, whereby the parts are fed through the inlet to the sorting place or separating position at the bottom end of canal 10 in one of two distinct, opposite orientations. Due to the probability laws one half of the parts are oriented in the one direction while the other half of the parts will be oriented in the opposite direction. When the hollow side of part 25 is directed towards nozzle 20 as shown in FIG. 5 for the part simultaneously exposed to the action of both air jets leaving nozzles 19 and 20 respectively, the jet leaving nozzle 20 and entering into the hollow portion of the part will exert a force directed to the left exceeding the force exerted by the air jet from nozzle 19 which is directed towards the flat and smooth side of part 25. Therefore, the part 25 shown in symmetrical position relatively to the nozzles 19 and 20 will be accelerated to the left and is discharged into one of the pair of outlets which is the left rising branch of canal 10, wherein it is blown upwards `by the air stream from nozzle 20, which is discharged through the left branch of canal 10, until the part enters the upper portion of canal 12. At this moment part 25 enters into the air jet from one of nozzles 22 and is blown downwards through canal 12. In an analogous manner oppositely oriented parts 25 having their hollow side directed towards nozzle 19 are discharged into the other of the pair of outlets which is the right rising branch of canal 11 as set out above for parts discharged through the left canal 10. The so oriented and sorted parts may be removed back to back at the lower ends of canals 11 and 12, as indicated in FIG. 3. Pairs of the parts may be removed and transported to a working station by means not shown.

The parts falling into the sorting place wherein the air jets leaving nozzles 19 and 20 are effective, are rapidly blown away to the left or right so that new parts may be admitted to the sorting place in extremely rapid succession. fIf the so sorted and oriented parts cannot be removed from the lower outlet ends of canals 11 and 12, piles of such parts are formed in these canals up to the level of openings 16 and 17, whereupon further parts falling upon the pile will leave the canals through openings 16 and 17 and will return to the feeding device 14 through funnel 18. Therefore clogging of the device or jamming of parts in the canals cannot occur.

When it is desired to have all parts oriented in the same direction, an ejector member, for instance a metal sheet, may be inserted through one of openings 16 or 17 into one of canals 11 or 12 so that parts falling down through this canal are completely fed back to the feeding device 14. If it is required to obtain the same orientation for all parts one of the canals involved may be twisted in such a manner that the parts are turned while advancing through this twisted canal, whereby all parts will leave the device in similar orientation.

While the invention has been described with reference to parts having a ilat and a hollow side, other parts may be sorted and oriented provided that their physical assymmetry is sucient. This asymmetry may also be a magnetic or electric one in which case orienting and sorting of the parts would preferably be effected by means of magnetic or electric fields. Jets of a liquid medium may be used instead of the described air jets. The jets of a gaseous or liquid medium and the fields of forces may be changed in direction and intensity in order to adapt the device for sorting and orienting different kinds of parts.

What I claim is:

1. A device for separating particles presenting different degrees of resistance to a flow of uid medium thereover depending upon the orientation of the particles with respect to said flow of fluid medium comprising; means forming a separating position, means forming an inlet to the separating position, means forming a pair of outlets from said separating position, means providing a discharge of tluid medium against each of the particles sequentially at the separating position, whereby each of the particles is sequentially moved into one or the other of the pair of outlets depending upon the orientation of the particle with respect to the discharge of the fluid medium.

2. A device for separating particles presenting different degrees of resistance to a flow of fluid medium thereover depending upon the orientation of the particles with respect to said flow of fluid medium comprising; means forming a separating position, means forming an inlet to the separating position, means forming a pair of outlets from said separating position, means providing discharges of uid medium in substantially opposite directions against each of the particles sequentially at the separating position, whereby each of the particles is sequentially moved into one or the other of the pair of outlets depending upon the orientation of the particle with respect to the discharges of the fluid medium.

3. A device for separating particles presenting different degrees of resitsance to a flow of liuid medium thereover depending upon the orientation of the particles with respect to said ow of fluid medium comprising; means forming a separating position, means forming an inlet to the separting position, means forming a pair of outlets from said separating position, the outlets extending generally in opposite directions, means in the inlet for orienting the particles into one of two positions, means proa: viding a pair of discharges of fluid medium directed in substantially opposite directions against each of the particles sequentially at the separating position, whereby each of the particles is moved sequentially into one or the other of the pair of outlets depending upon the orientation of the particle lwith respect to the discharges of the uid medium.

4. A device for separating particles presenting different degrees of resistance to the ow of uid medium thereover depending upon the orientation thereof according to claim 3 in which the inlet is positioned substantially perpendicular with respect to the outlets.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,165,700 Muessel Dec. 28, 1915 2,270,713 Belada Ian. 20, 1942 2,377,294 Belada et al. May 29, 1945 2,765,900 Seabrooke Oct. 9, 1956 2,908,420 Hoffman et al. Oct. 13, 1959 

